Men Homosexual Prostitutes in The Kenyan Coast as A Challenge in The Society with Particular References to The Men Prostitutes Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi, Lamu, Ukunda, And Watamu
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Date
2002-02
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Abstract
Homosexuality really is a question. It challenges us in different ways, according to our
own personalities and relationships. The challenge hits us at the deepest, most hidden
level of ourselves: how do we handle our own sexuality? And today with knowledge of
Freud, we have to admit the issue is neither simple nor straightforward.
The homosexual question brings a lot of a variety of responses, some people react
strangely, even violently. In fact one of those reactions finally clinched my decision to
write this paper. The incident itself is not very important. But it struck me as a sign of
such ignorance and such unwillingness to think that I felt I had to communicate what I
myself had learned from observation and interviews. These are my simple thoughts on
the homosexual men prostitution after many years of observation and later on interview
with them. These is what prompted me to write the paper on homosexual men prostitutes:
It is a delight subject, one that people did not mention a few years ago. Today everyone
talks about homosexuality even on television, but not openly in Africa for it is still a
taboo. Yet the word covers a wide range of experience, and the debate is growing heated
and often confused. We conclude that the most useful thing we could do would be to
provide some information. We did not feel it was our job to make judgments.
During the past few years, in literature in films, and on television, a subject that was long
a taboo has been brought to the public-homosexuality, although it is still a taboo to most African people. This is real progress, because homosexuality is a fact of human life, it
would be dishonest or hypocritical to ignore it. But the new openness carries a build-in
risk of oversimplification that leads to caricature, segregation, or defensiveness.
In my interview, I conclude that; knowing and observing the male homosexual
prostitutes, may dispel a few prejudices and falsehoods. A man who is a homosexual is
not responsible for his situation. He has not chosen it. Thus it would be entirely unfair to
censure him, as if homosexuality were a moral defects, his own fault. It creates some
problems for him, which may be more or less dramatic, more or less obvious; but he is
not a being apart. Homosexuality is not an illness in the usual sense of term. It is not
something that strikes you at a particular moment and disables you temporarily, or for a
long time or for the rest of your life. The majority of homosexuals feel it is at ease "to
some extend, but hardly ill." It is not a mental illness. Homosexuality is the result of an anomaly of effective and psychological development
rooted in earliest childhood. (Except in very rare cases, no physical or organic causes can
be debated). A small minority of homosexuals feel it such a basic element in their
unconscious that they make aggressive claims, scorning heterosexuality as "inferior" or
confusing the issue with political ideologies. It is hard to accept but it is quite obvious,
the Father of a family does not feel the same affection in his son as he feels for his
daughter-simply because the first kind is "homosexual" while the second is
"heterosexual." This is normal, common point of departure. But for varied and
complicated reasons, a child's emotional development may be thwarted; the erotic impulse may not lead to the normal free desire for the "other." Or perhaps such
development occurs, but it is distorted and chaotic. There are also many heterosexuals
who are not "normal."
Two homosexuals can have a relationship, though transitory, of real love, even of charity.
At the same time certain heterosexual relationships even among married couples, have
little to do with love. The problem of a homosexual is by the example he sets, by the
disorder he suggests, by the dissipation he represents- is a danger. From the moment the
homosexuality becomes a danger, as it certainly is today, we must fight this concur. We
must fight the forces that have led people down such paths- true but we must fight the
scum who parade these disorders around and sing their praises.
I hope I have made my purpose and orientation clear. This paper will spell out a position,
which will perhaps shock certain readers. But I will not challenge traditional ideas just
for the sake of argument. As a saying goes, "I know what I am talking about." There are
people struggling with the problems of homosexuality. I have tried to understand not just
the stories but also their impact on me. In the psychoanalytic sense it was "counter
transference." Obviously I can no longer think of the homosexual question in the old
simplistic, superficial way. "Traditional ideas" were deeply rooted, but they could not
stand up to experience. I would like to share the results, subjective as they are, of my
personal evolution.
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Keywords
Homosexual, Prostitutes, Kenyan Coast, Society, Kilifi, Malindi, Lamu, Ukunda, Watamu